Minimally Invasive Micro-Hole Intervention for Wireless Intracranial Pressure Measurement.

Abstract

Intracranial pressure (ICP) is an important indicator in the management of brain disease. The gold-standard method for ICP monitoring via external ventricular drainage is invasive, and wired pressure-measuring techniques are not suitable for convenient ICP monitoring; meanwhile, existing wireless ICP measurement methods typically require invasive insertion of a thick cannula into the ventricle or implantation of an epidural or subdural pressure sensor. This study presents a method of minimally invasive and wireless ICP monitoring via micro-hole intervention. First, assisted by the ultrasonic vibration-assisted micro-hole craniotomy, a high-quality micro-hole is generated on the skull, providing a micro-tunnel to access the brain. Next, the dura mater beneath the micro-hole in the skull is precisely ablated using the cyclic low-power electroablation method. Furthermore, a miniaturized wireless capacitive pressure sensor has been developed; the pressure sensor, designed with a micro-cannula of the same diameter as the micro-hole in the skull, can be conveniently implanted to access the cerebrospinal fluid for ICP monitoring. The effectiveness of this method has been demonstrated in vivo on rabbits. Micro-hole craniotomy and micro-hole dura electroablation, as well as the miniaturized pressure sensor, collectively enable wireless ICP monitoring via micro-hole intervention, offering great convenience with minimal invasiveness.